7 human traffickers arrested in Pakistan for immigration fraud

November 26, 2018 | Brainwave Science

SITUATION

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan arrested 7 human traffickers from different parts of the Faisalabad district during raids on early Monday. The agency had received multiple tip-offs about their hideouts. The arrested persons are said to be involved in immigration scams. There is a widespread incidence of fraudsters who extract money from innocent people on the pretext of helping them emigrate to first-world countries for better employment and matrimonial prospects. Multiple passports, fake visas, illegal documents and cash were recovered from the arrested persons. In this year alone, more than 35 human smugglers have been arrested from Faisalabad district.

Only a week ago, on Nov. 19, a set of 11 persons were arrested for their alleged involvement in the extraction of money from the innocent in order to send them to Europe.

CHALLENGE

In 2012, British high commissioner to Islamabad attracted attention to an abnormally high number of fraudulent visa applications which originated from the Indian Sub-Continent, before the London Olympics. The desire to move to European or North American countries for better prospects, is strong among the people of many countries like India, Pakistan and other countries. This desire is exploited by middle-men or touts who pocket huge sums of money from the innocent applicants.

Due to unfavourable living conditions at home, the hapless victims trust ‘agents’ blindly, who promise a visa and/or a job overseas in a country of choice, in exchange for a sum amounting to USD 20,000-40,000. Many families have fallen prey to immigration fraud, and have not only lost their money but also pawned their ancestral jewellery and agricultural land for this purpose. Unsuspecting families have been duped for their money on the pretext of sending their family-members abroad for employment or education.

More often than not, the victims don’t reach their destinations. There have also been cases of the victims being trafficked as slaves, prostitutes or drug-mules.

Such rackets run abound in countries where emigration is a popular means to escape poverty, unemployment, war and other harsh conditions. In addition to this, widespread corruption makes it difficult to find the real kingpins. To save the citizens from financial and emotional exploitation, the concerned authorities must explore ways to quickly identify and put the fraudsters behind bars.

WHY ICOGNATIVE?

In a traditional sense, the law enforcement agencies will interrogate the arrested human traffickers to extract information about their network, modus operandi, prior crimes, future plans, etc. It is great news that a modern tool provided by Brainwave Science, called iCognative can not only help speed up the above process of information gathering but also deliver immensely accurate results.

iCognative is a unique security solution designed for agencies which want to move ahead from traditional investigative methods. iCognative offered by Brainwave Science is easy-to-learn and easy-to-implement. It is a highly customizable technology that can be applied to several disciplines such as National Security, Immigration Control, Counter-Terrorism, Border Security and Law Enforcement. It can accurately confirm if specific crime-related information is stored in a testee’s memory or not.Usually, 45 minutes long, the iCognative test analyses brain responses called P300/P300 MERMER. The test can help enormously in solving the case of immigration fraud in Pakistan. For the test, gathered evidence, also called stimuli, which is can be the date and time of illegal departures, pictures of victims, CCTV footage of victims at ports of transit, etc are flashed on a screen during iCognative test. The persons arrested in this case will be exposed to this stimuli and their brains will reveal their involvement. There is no interaction between the administrator of the test and the testee. This makes the test immune to the subjective opinion of the test administrator. The test is known to report no false positives or false negatives. The iCognativesystem is 99.9% accurate in its analysis and results. The system indicates at the end of the test as to whether the information is ‘present’ or ‘absent’ in the testee’s brain.Brainwave Science’siCognative is a very cost-effective technique applicable in multiple criminal situations, be it at a local law enforcement level or at a global counter-terrorism level. Agencies tackling human trafficking must use Brainwave Science, to narrow down to the real culprits, and also reverse-engineer the immigration fraud organisation. This revolutionary tool can bring human traffickers and immigration fraudsters to the books.